Toronto G20 Protests - Police Officers Were Given Orders to Make Illegal Arrests

Toronto News: Man settles G20 lawsuit, claims police brass ordered false arrests - thestar.com

Officers detaining Wall on June 27, 2010, told OPIRD investigators they were instructed to arrest people wearing bandanas, masks or gas masks concealing their identity. One officer said he was told to search anyone with a backpack, and if that person refused, he or she could be arrested for obstructing police.

Davin Charney, Wall’s lawyer, said the report shows the many unlawful arrests of that weekend were not just the result of a few bad apples or overreaction from front-line officers. “The orders must have come from the top.”

Toronto Police Services Board shows some spine

Toronto News: Police board refuses to promote G20 officers - thestar.com
Good for the board!

The Toronto police board has taken
the unprecedented step of refusing to promote nine officers who were
disciplined for removing their name tags during G20 demonstrations.

Chief Bill Blair recommended those
promotions and the civilian oversight board’s refusal to agree suggests
cracks in what has historically been a close relationship.

On Tuesday, the police association
filed a grievance. If the arbitrator sides with the police board, it
will make clear a currently gray area regarding the board’s powers to
refuse promotions.

In the past, the board has passively
pushed through reclassification recommendations from the chief,
including for officers who have unbecoming conduct on their records.

That practice has been a sore spot
for years among some on the board, who feel uneasy about giving more
authority to officers they believe have shown questionable judgment and
character.

As they should believe. Officers who clearly display questionable judgment and character should NOT be given more authority. They have shown that they will just potentially abuse more power and public trust.

Toronto G20: The only organized agression was perpetrated by police

Toronto News: Aggression during G20 rally ‘perpetrated by police,’ judge rules - thestar.com
Although we now have a judge's statements that the police were unjustified aggressors on the weekend of the G20 protests in Toronto (June 2010), the statements are regarding a trial of one defendant (found not guilty of all charges), and not as part of a much-needed federal public inquiry.

Excerpts:
A Toronto judge has ruled that “adrenalized” police officers
acted as aggressors at a peaceful political rally that led to dozens of
arrests during last year’s G20 summit.

“The only organized or collective physical aggression at that
location that evening was perpetrated by police each time they advanced
on demonstrators,” Justice Melvyn Green ruled on Thursday. He was
referring to a demonstration at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday,
June 26, 2010.

Green stated police criminalized political demonstration, which is “vital” to maintain a “viable democracy.”

Green’s stern words echo widespread criticism of police during the
G20, in which more than 1,100 people were detained in the largest mass
arrest in Canadian history. A Toronto Star/Angus Reid Public
Opinion poll conducted on the one-year anniversary of the G20 found a
majority of Torontonians (54 per cent) now believe police response to
demonstrations during the summit were unjustified.

“The zealous exercise of police arrest powers in the context of
political demonstrations risks distorting the necessary if delicate
balance between law enforcement concerns for public safety and order, on
the one hand, and individual rights and freedoms, on the other,” Green
wrote in a 29-page judgment.

New Davenport NDP MP Andrew Cash fighting for justice for Toronto business owners affected by the G20

Ottawa agrees to review G20 claims from Toronto business owners - thestar.com
Excerpt:

NDP MP Andrew Cash (Davenport) accused the government of trying to
bury businesses in paperwork hoping they will “just quietly go away.”

“Toronto businesses inside and around the G20 zone suffered millions
in damages and they are not going away,” Cash said during Question
Period. “It has now been a year without compensation and these folks are
still suffering.”

Baird responded that Cash had “raised a legitimate concern about the adequacy of the funding and are the rules too strict.”

“I am certainly prepared to review that,” he said.

Toronto G20: One thug down, many to go.

Toronto police officer charged in G20 assault - thestar.com
Many more officers guilty of assault causing bodily harm will remain at large and uncharged due to a system that fails ordinary citizens when trusted police officers break the law.

Harper government offers peanuts to businesses who suffered due to the G20

Business owners insulted by G20 compensation offers - thestar.com
Stevie was willing to waste our money on fake lakes and sidewalks in small towns, and on way too many cops and toys for them. But, when it comes to compensating businesses who greatly suffered due to damages and the closure of downtown Toronto, he insults them.

Toronto G20 protests - More police to be investigated for brutality and illegal arrest

Police open criminal investigation into G20 arrest - thestar.com
Excerpt:
According to her statement of claim, Gray was protesting peacefully near
the temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave. on June 27, 2010 — the
final day of the G20 summit — when an officer shot her with two rubber
bullets, causing her to fall to the ground. She was then forcefully
arrested by two other officers and taken to the detention centre, where
she remained for 30 hours with minimal medical attention

Bill Blair: big liar or most useless police chief ever?

YouTube - Bill Blair: "I have not seen any videos of Officers using excessive force".
watch the video
This is mind boggling. I've seen numerous videos filmed during the Toronto G20 protests that show police officers using excessive force. Most of these were put on the Internet the same day they were taken. ... Cops on horseback, in a tight group, trampling a non-threatening protester, cops coming up behind people sitting on the ground and beating them on their heads with no warning, and much more.

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation | Watch Free Documentary Online
Originally titled G20 Exposed, this is the final finished version.

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation is an educational documentary
that shows, in chronological order, the events that transpired over the
G20 weekend in Toronto, Canada. While the mainstream media repeatedly
broadcast images of burning police cars and broken windows, the cameras
on the ground captured a far more terrifying story. Eyewitness video
footage and firsthand accounts featured in this film tell a horrific
tale of police brutality, mass arrests, secret laws and outrageous
violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Wishful thinking regarding the Toronto Police Services Board

Reining in the unaccountable chief - thestar.com
The Toronto Star is hopeful that Rob Ford will adjust the board so it will guide the police with a firmer hand instead of the afraid-to-give-orders-to-the-police-chief board that we currently have.
This IS their job - to direct the police chief. For the most part, if he is doing his job properly, then they don't need to give him direction. But, when he is not doing his job properly, like when, during the G20 protest weekend, he misdirected police to break the law by assaulting peaceful protesters and to illegally detain peaceful protesters, and when he told the police to allow vandals to damage property and when he told the police to leave vehicles for the vandals to torch and to let them burn, HE NEEDED TO BE DIRECTED!
And, he needed direction after the fact to, as the Star points out.

But, if anything, Rob Ford will not do anything to give the chief direction. Rob Ford thinks all the innocent people during the G20 protest weekend should have been assaulted and detained. Rob is into that, same as he is into not knowing the facts about pretty much everything. He will do quite the opposite to the board - he will make sure that they do nothing to direct the police, even more so than the previous board.

We DO need a strong chair on the board, and a strong board, but, in my opinion, we won't see one for at least another 4 years.

Parliamentary committee on the Toronto G20 police actions uncovers more skullduggery by the cops

Toronto journalist witnessed ‘police brutality’ at Toronto G20 - thestar.com
Excerpt:

“One officer held one arm, The other officer held the other arm and a
third officer came up to him and basically told him to shut up three
times, punched him in the stomach. He doubled over. The same officer
brought his elbow down on the small of his back and flattened him. It
seemed to me that that was a massive overreaction to try and check to
see whether somebody was who he said he was.”

Two University of British Columbia students Kirk Chavarie and
Grayson Lepp told the committee of their treatment by police after
attending a peaceful protest earlier in the day, including having to
stand in urine and feces for hours on end in a temporary holding cell in
Toronto’s east end only to have charges later withdrawn.

“Despite what some pundits would have you believe . . . I am
neither a thug nor a hooligan,” said Lepp, who is to graduate from the
UBC’s Okanagan campus.

NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) told a news conference on
Parliament Hill earlier that not to hold a public inquiry is to accept
that Canada is becoming a police state where the toe of an officer’s
boot or punch in the gut is the rule of law.

Davies said not only has it been proven that police falsified
evidence to justify widespread arrests — the largest in Canadian history
— they also manufactured evidence, including so-called weapons seized
from completely separate incidents.

“What we need is a full public inquiry . . . if not, one of the
most shameful and largest mass violations of Canadians’ rights by police
and the state in Canadian history will go totally unredressed,” he said

Unidentifiable police can't be charged for G20 police crimes

Cops accused by G20 protesters cleared of excessive force allegations
The police who committed the crime of excessive force have been cleared of any wrongdoing because they weren't wearing their nametags, other police witnesses refused to testify, and civilian videos were shot from too far away to make out individual officers.

I've seen a lot of videos and some of the shots of police bludgeoning and kicking people were pretty close up. I wonder if civilian witnesses were asked to pick police out of a line up or to testify - probably not.

I say let's fire all the cops who decided to evade the law, abuse our trust, and assault peaceful protesters. Fire all the ones who were not wearing their nametags/numbers. That is the responsible thing to do here. And while they're at it, fire the thugs who gave the orders to beat and illegally arrest peaceful protesters and bystanders.

Addendum:
Toronto Sun: Our Cops and the Cone of Silence
All the SIU did this week was confirm the law does not apply the same way to those in uniform and the code of silence is not reserved just for the thugs.

Toronto G20: Cost numbers starting to come out

CBC News - Politics - G8/G20 costs top $857M - this link is to some highlights

CBC News - Friday Documenta Dump - G8/G20 Sumitacular Retrospective Edition! - this link it to the full document
As tabled in the House of Commons earlier today.

Note: Electronic version provided by the ever helpful NDP -- it's a
straight scan from the binders, so don't blame them -- or me -- for the
reader-unfriendly format.

Talk about a Gravy Train (here is a real one Rob)!

Toronto G20 hearings - Bill Blair grilled by Don Davies

YouTube - Don Davies and Bill Blair at G/20 hearings
Watch the video.

The truth will out.

See also:
G20 charges dropped over lack of warrant

G20 testimony shows need for full inquiry
Excerpts:
“After six hours of hearings, many troubling details have emerged,” said
Davies. “Yesterday, we learned that 90 police officers decided to
break a rule set by the Chief of Police by removing their name badges.
We discovered that police lacked the proper warrant to arrest the
students who were rounded up early Sunday morning at the University of
Toronto. There were guns drawn on sleeping students, in circumstances
that almost certainly violated use of force rules.”

"Our process can only scratch at the surface of the questions and
inconsistencies that remain about summit security,” said Davies. “No
one has answered for the appalling conditions in the detention facility,
and for the systemic violations of many individuals’ right to counsel.
The government still has not adequately explained the decision-making
behind the planning of the summits or who was calling the shots for
on-the-ground security decisions.

“Only a full public inquiry can get the answers needed to explain the
widespread civil rights violations and the largest mass arrests in
Canadian history,” concluded Davies.

Toronto G20 - Preventative Detention?

Preventative detention? - Peace, order and good government, eh?
Excerpt:
it would appear that the chief of police of a major metropolitan city
just admitted that his officers illegally detained hundreds of people.
With his approval. And he has admitted it in front of a room full of
members of parliament, no less.

Can I look forward to this making headlines across the country?

Can we have that independent public inquiry now?

As outlined in the comments at the above link, citizens and peace officers can detain people, with appropriate force, if there are reasonable grounds that in so detaining people that it will stop or reduce violence (my words). Well, what happened was that a lot of peace officers detained people, using extreme and unnecessary force, without any reasonable grounds of stopping further violence. Obviously peaceful people were brutalized and detained in the hundreds for no good reason.

And, as one commenter pointed out: I think a very strong case can be made that in the majority of
situations that weekend, the police used force far in excess of
"reasonably proportioned to the danger apprehended". There was one
occasion that might apply, but in that situation the police did nothing.

Toronto G20: Toronto officers to be disciplined over summit conduct

Nearly 100 Toronto officers to be disciplined over summit conduct - The Globe and Mail
Nearly 100 Toronto police officers will be disciplined for removing
their name tags at the G20 summit, says the city’s police chief who also
admitted charges were thrown out against roughly 100 people because the
force failed to obtain appropriate arrest warrants.

Woah! Hold on there - for removing their name tags!???!!! What about for assaulting people, and illegally detaining people, generally abusing their powers and trust?!!! WTF!? After looking at over 22,000 hours of video they never saw any police brutality?! Come on! I watched maybe a couple of hours of video during and just after the G20 protests and saw police brutality in at least 60% of the videos.

And, there were not 100 charges thrown out, there were 100s of charges thrown out.

The stink of police corruption is overpowering!

Toronto Police only accountable to themselves

Orwell's Bastard: The day they turned the Charter of Rights into toilet paper
Here is an excellent post on the problems of trying to hold the Toronto Police force accountable to abuses they commit.

G20 Toronto: Totalitarian Police State

Walkom: The G20 protests and judicial farce - thestar.com
"As this week’s judicial farce demonstrates, the people in charge of
public security during that raucous weekend went off the rails. They
acted as if potential dissent were a crime."

See also:
G20 charges dropped at mass hearing

And yes, Bubble Girl's charges were dropped:
http://canadian-firebrand.blogspot.com/2010/08/bubble-girl-charges-dropped.html

G20 Toronto: another late call for an inquiry

Growing case for G20 probe - thestar.com
Yes, a FEDERAL inquiry is needed. One that has the power to subpoena. One that will get to the bottom of who really called the shots and allowed the vandalism to happen, and that ordered the police to illegally arrest and detain hundreds of innocent people. This Toronto Star article sort of calls for that, but not quite.

Toronto G20: - a little more information comes out

Anatomy of the G20: the story from both sides of the fence - thestar.com